A Bibliometric Analysis of Turkish Research Activity in the Rheumatology Category of the Web of Science Database

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate a bibliometric analysis of publications produced by researchers from Turkey and cataloged in Web of Science's (WoS) Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCI-E) under the rheumatology category. Methods: The WoS database's 2019 data was scanned for journals in the rheumatology category and indexed in the SCI-E. Articles identified as having been published before January 1, 2020 in the advanced search section of the WoS database were examined using their journal ISSN numbers. Meeting summaries, proceedings, early access studies, book series, and conference titles were excluded. All bibliometric data were evaluated for each publication. Results: Thirty-one journals scanned in the rheumatology category were investigated. It was determined that a total of 84,761 articles were published over 40 years (1980-2019), and that 3,179 (3.75%) of these articles were written solely by Turkish authors. It was observed that these 3,179 articles were cited 43,494 times, and that the average number of citations was 13.68 +/- 23.52. The total h-index value was 76. The most cited article received 444 citations and the article with the highest annual average number of citations had a value of 20.17 citations/year. It was found that of the top 20 most cited articles, seven articles were about Behcet's disease, and four concerned familial Mediterranean fever. Conclusion: This study will contribute to the literature by reflecting upon the amount of research that has been carried out and shedding light on future work that could be considered in the field of rheumatology in Turkey.